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Introduction 📌

1 Introduction

Some weeks ago I had a very interesting discussion with a new friend of mine from the distant beautiful Peru while being in Utrecht. The discussion was around if Greece is in really such a bad economic spot, as me and some other Greeks probably told her many times that for many immigration is not a choice rather a necessity to find a good life quality. She didn’t seem to understand it at first although a very knowledgeable person as in her eyes Greece is still a Western European Country, that is very well of better than other Countries especially from Southern America. So I hope that exploring the data will shed some more light into our interesting conversation. (for my Peruvian friend Daniella)

Is it time for Greek immigrants to return home and brain-drain turn to brain-gain? Do the brains have anything to gain also regarding their financial well-being? Lets explore some data so at the end anyone can take his own conclusions if it’s time to return to Greece.

Notes 📝

All the Countries that are included in the OECD data are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Chile, Estonia, Israel, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, Colombia, Costa Rica and the indexes OECD, G-7, EA19, EU27_2020.

So the Countries that will be included will be the following: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic (Czechia), Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, Canada and Australia.

OECD Data Categories 📊

2 Overview

2.1 Unemployment

Unemployment 📉

The 5 (five) different data sets from OECD that I am gonna use to illustrate unemployment metrics, are the following together with their description (citation provided on references):

📌 Unemployment rate : The unemployed are people of working age who are without work, are available for work, and have taken specific steps to find work. The uniform application of this definition results in estimates of unemployment rates that are more internationally comparable than estimates based on national definitions of unemployment. This indicator is measured in numbers of unemployed people as a percentage of the labour force and it is seasonally adjusted. The labour force is defined as the total number of unemployed people plus those in employment. Data are based on labour force surveys (LFS). For European Union countries where monthly LFS information is not available, the monthly unemployed figures are estimated by Eurostat.

  • A first place in Unemployment rate % for Greece in 2021 among these Countries.

📌 Unemployment rate by age group : The unemployed are people of working age who are without work, are available for work, and have taken specific steps to find work. The uniform application of this definition results in estimates of unemployment rates that are more internationally comparable than estimates based on national definitions of unemployment. Unemployment rates are shown for two age groups: people aged 15 to 24 (those just entering the labour market following education); and people aged 25 and over. This indicator is measured in numbers of unemployed people as a percentage of the labour force and it is seasonally adjusted. The labour force is defined as the total number of unemployed people plus those in civilian employment. Data are based on labour force surveys (LFS). For European Union countries where monthly LFS information is not available, the monthly unemployed figures are estimated by Eurostat.

  • Another first place in Unemployment for Greece in 2021 among these Countries, both for the ages 25 to 74 and in the young ages of 15 to 24.

📌 Unemployment rates by education level : This indicator shows the unemployment rates of people according to their education levels: below upper secondary, upper secondary non-tertiary, or tertiary. The unemployed are defined as people without work but actively seeking employment and currently available to start work. This indicator measures the percentage of unemployed 25-64 year-olds among 25-64 year-olds in the labour force.

  • Greece takes first spot in unemployment rates by education level for people who have graduated High School (upper-secondary) and Higher Education e.g. Universities etc. (Tertiary).

📌 Long-term unemployment rate : Long-term unemployment refers to people who have been unemployed for 12 months or more. The long-term unemployment rate shows the proportion of these long-term unemployed among all unemployed. Unemployment is usually measured by national labour force surveys and refers to people reporting that they have worked in gainful employment for less than one hour in the previous week, who are available for work and who have sought employment in the past four weeks. Long-term unemployment causes significant mental and material stress for those affected and their families. It is also of particular concern for policy makers, as high rates of long-term unemployment indicate that labour markets are operating inefficiently. This indicator is measured as a percentage of unemployed.

  • Greece first spot again with a sounding 66.51%.

📌 Youth unemployment rate : The youth unemployment rate is the number of unemployed 15-24 year-olds expressed as a percentage of the youth labour force. Unemployed people are those who report that they are without work, that they are available for work and that they have taken active steps to find work in the last four weeks.

Return to the tabbed sections to see more by clicking here 👉 Overview!

Return to the tabbed sections to see more by clicking here 👉 Overview!

2.2 Employment

Employment 💼

The 5 (five) different data sets from OECD that I am gonna use to illustrate employment metrics are the following together with their description (citation provided on references):

📌 Employment rate : Employment rates are defined as a measure of the extent to which available labour resources (people available to work) are being used. They are calculated as the ratio of the employed to the working age population. Employment rates are sensitive to the economic cycle, but in the longer term they are significantly affected by governments’ higher education and income support policies and by policies that facilitate employment of women and disadvantaged groups. Employed people are those aged 15 or over who report that they have worked in gainful employment for at least one hour in the previous week or who had a job but were absent from work during the reference week. The working age population refers to people aged 15 to 64. This indicator is seasonally adjusted and it is measured in terms of thousand persons aged 15 and over; and in numbers of employed persons aged 15 to 64 as a percentage of working age population.

📌 Employment rate by age group : The employment rate for a given age group is measured as the number of employed people of a given age as a percentage of the total number of people in that same age group. Employed people are defined as those aged 15 and over who report that they have worked in gainful employment for at least one hour in the previous week or who had a job but were absent from work during the reference week while having a formal job attachment. Employment rates are shown for four age groups: people aged 15-64 (the working age population): people aged 15 to 24 (those just entering the labour market following education); people aged 25 to 54 (those in their prime working lives); people aged 55 to 64 (those passing the peak of their career and approaching retirement). This indicator is seasonally adjusted and it is measured as a percentage in same age group.

📌 Employment by education level : This indicator shows the employment rates of people according to their education levels: below upper secondary, upper secondary non-tertiary, or tertiary. The employment rate refers to the number of persons in employment as a percentage of the population of working age. The employed are defined as those who work for pay or profit for at least one hour a week, or who have a job but are temporarily not at work due to illness, leave or industrial action. This indicator measures the percentage of employed 25-64 year-olds among all 25-64 year-olds.

📌 Self-employment rate : Self-employment is defined as the employment of employers, workers who work for themselves, members of producers’ co-operatives, and unpaid family workers. The latter are unpaid in the sense that they lack a formal contract to receive a fixed amount of income at regular intervals, but they share in the income generated by the enterprise. Unpaid family workers are particularly important in farming and retail trade. All persons who work in corporate enterprises, including company directors, are considered to be employees. Self-employment may be seen either as a survival strategy for those who cannot find any other means of earning an income or as evidence of entrepreneurial spirit and a desire to be one’s own boss. Employed people are as those aged 15 or over who report that they have worked in gainful employment for at least one hour in the previous week or who had a job but were absent from work during the reference week. This indicator is measured as a percentage of the employed population considered (total, men or women).

📌 Hours worked : Average annual hours worked is defined as the total number of hours actually worked per year divided by the average number of people in employment per year. Actual hours worked include regular work hours of full-time, part-time and part-year workers, paid and unpaid overtime, hours worked in additional jobs, and exclude time not worked because of public holidays, annual paid leave, own illness, injury and temporary disability, maternity leave, parental leave, schooling or training, slack work for technical or economic reasons, strike or labour dispute, bad weather, compensation leave and other reasons. The data cover employees and self-employed workers. This indicator is measured in terms of hours per worker per year. The data are published with the following health warning: The data are intended for comparisons of trends over time; they are unsuitable for comparisons of the level of average annual hours of work for a given year, because of differences in their sources and method of calculation.

Return to the tabbed sections to see more by clicking here 👉 Overview!

Return to the tabbed sections to see more by clicking here 👉 Overview!

2.3 Productivity

Productivity 📅

The data set from OECD that I am gonna use to illustrate productivity metric is the following together with its description (citation provided on references):

📌 GDP per hour worked : GDP per hour worked is a measure of labour productivity. It measures how efficiently labour input is combined with other factors of production and used in the production process. Labour input is defined as total hours worked of all persons engaged in production. Labour productivity only partially reflects the productivity of labour in terms of the personal capacities of workers or the intensity of their effort. The ratio between the output measure and the labour input depends to a large degree on the presence and/or use of other inputs (e.g. capital, intermediate inputs, technical, organisational and efficiency change, economies of scale). This indicator is measured in USD (constant prices 2010 and PPPs) and indices.

Return to the tabbed sections to see more by clicking here 👉 Overview!

Return to the tabbed sections to see more by clicking here 👉 Overview!

2.4 Wages

Wages 💶

The data set from OECD that I am gonna use to illustrate wage metric is the following together with its description (citation provided on references):

📌 Average wages : Average wages are obtained by dividing the national-accounts-based total wage bill by the average number of employees in the total economy, which is then multiplied by the ratio of the average usual weekly hours per full-time employee to the average usually weekly hours for all employees. This indicator is measured in USD constant prices using 2016 base year and Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs) for private consumption of the same year.

The average wage for Greece peaked at ~33.974 US Dollars and the latest data of 2020, show a wage average of ~27.207 US Dollars, that is a decrease of 19.9% in national wage average.

From the Countries we are exploring this is the biggest decrease in national average wage with the second place in biggest decrease going to Spain with a national average wage decrease of 9.45% , from peak of 41.883 in 2009 to 37.922 USD in 2020. Italy seems to come third with a decrease of 8.3%. Almost all of the other Countries examined here not only have they not seen a decrease in their national average wage from their respecting peak, but their national average wages are increasing steadily over the years, with most of these countries actually seeing a peak during 2020 where our data information ends. This is also the case for Hungary and Slovakia, since while the data from 2020 show them to have a lower national average wage than Greece, their average wages are steadily increasing over the years.

Return to the tabbed sections to see more by clicking here 👉 Overview!

Return to the tabbed sections to see more by clicking here 👉 Overview!

2.5 Population - Demography

Population - Demography 🧍

The 3 (three) different data sets from OECD that I am gonna use to illustrate population metrics are the following together with their description (citation provided on references):

📌 Young Population : The youth population is defined as those people aged less than15. The share of the dependent population is calculated as total elderly and youth population expressed as a ratio of the total population. The youth-dependency ratio relates the number of young persons that are likely to be dependent on the support of others for their daily needs to the number of those who are capable of providing such support. Demographic trends have a number of implications for government and private spending on pensions, health care, and education, and, more generally, for economic growth and welfare. This indicator is measured as a percentage of population.

📌 Old-age dependency ratio : The old-age to working-age demographic ratio is defined as the number of individuals aged 65 and over per 100 people of working age defined as those at ages 20 to 64. The evolution of old-age to working-age ratios depends on mortality rates, fertility rates and migration. OECD countries have seen prolonged increases in life expectancy that most analysts project to continue, implying an increasing number of older people and most likely of pensioners too. This indicator is meausured as a percentage.

📌 Fertility rates : The total fertility rate in a specific year is defined as the total number of children that would be born to each woman if she were to live to the end of her child-bearing years and give birth to children in alignment with the prevailing age-specific fertility rates. It is calculated by totalling the age-specific fertility rates as defined over five-year intervals. Assuming no net migration and unchanged mortality, a total fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman ensures a broadly stable population. Together with mortality and migration, fertility is an element of population growth, reflecting both the causes and effects of economic and social developments. The reasons for the dramatic decline in birth rates during the past few decades include postponed family formation and child-bearing and a decrease in desired family sizes. This indicator is measured in children per woman.

Return to the tabbed sections to see more by clicking here 👉 Overview!

Return to the tabbed sections to see more by clicking here 👉 Overview!

2.6 Education

Education 🎓

The data set from OECD that I am gonna use to illustrate education metric is the following together with its description (citation provided on references):

📌 Education spending : Education spending covers expenditure on schools, universities and other public and private educational institutions. Spending includes instruction and ancillary services for students and families provided through educational institutions. Spending is shown in USD per student and as a percentage of GDP.

Return to the tabbed sections to see more by clicking here 👉 Overview!

Return to the tabbed sections to see more by clicking here 👉 Overview!

2.7 GDP - Gross Domestic Product

GDP 💰

The data set from OECD that I am gonna use to illustrate GDP metric is the following together with its description (citation provided on references):

📌 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) : Gross domestic product (GDP) is the standard measure of the value added created through the production of goods and services in a country during a certain period. As such, it also measures the income earned from that production, or the total amount spent on final goods and services (less imports). While GDP is the single most important indicator to capture economic activity, it falls short of providing a suitable measure of people’s material well-being for which alternative indicators may be more appropriate. This indicator is based on nominal GDP (also called GDP at current prices or GDP in value) and is available in different measures: US dollars and US dollars per capita (current PPPs). All OECD countries compile their data according to the 2008 System of National Accounts (SNA). This indicator is less suited for comparisons over time, as developments are not only caused by real growth, but also by changes in prices and PPPs.

Return to the tabbed sections to see more by clicking here 👉 Overview!

Return to the tabbed sections to see more by clicking here 👉 Overview!

3 Summary

GT table with Greece’s positions from the selected Countries

Summary OECD Countries Metrics
An overview of positions of Countries in OECD metrics 2020
Country Unemployment Rate Long-term Unemployment Average Wage GDP/hour worked
Australia 6.46 0.00 55.21K 55.80
Austria 6.03 24.53 53.13K 69.76
Belgium 5.54 41.64 54.33K 74.49
Canada 9.56 5.14 55.34K 56.86
Switzerland 4.82 34.63 64.82K 75.75
Czechia 2.55 22.26 29.88K 42.45
Germany 3.83 0.00 53.75K 66.94
Denmark 5.65 16.73 58.43K 75.41
Spain 15.53 32.11 37.92K 52.25
Estonia 6.88 17.20 30.72K 41.76
Finland 7.72 15.90 46.23K 61.27
France 8.03 36.75 45.58K 67.60
United Kingdom 4.55 20.12 47.15K 61.27
Greece 16.44 66.51 27.21K 34.26
Hungary 4.12 27.21 25.41K 39.28
Ireland 5.85 24.02 49.47K 111.84
Italy 9.30 52.40 37.77K 54.84
Lithuania 8.52 28.97 31.81K 44.61
Luxembourg 6.69 25.54 65.85K 100.86
Latvia 8.10 27.33 29.88K 38.79
Netherlands 4.85 23.97 58.83K 66.99
Norway 4.60 20.94 55.78K 83.18
Poland 3.16 20.02 32.53K 41.03
Portugal 7.12 33.45 28.41K 40.01
Slovakia 6.70 44.97 23.62K 46.08
Slovenia 5.01 38.79 41.45K 45.70
Sweden 8.29 11.70 47.02K 70.53
United States 8.09 5.62 69.39K 73.37
OECD 2020 Data
Summary Greece Positions
An overview of positions of Greece in OECD metrics
Year of Data Greece Average
Self-Employment Rate 2020 31.86 14.18
GDP per hour worked 2020 34.26 60.46
Employment Rate 2020 53.67 70.17
Long-term Unemployment Rate 2020 66.51 27.63
Hours Worked 2020 1 728.00 1 547.61
Average Wage 2020 27 207.32 44 889.69
GDP 2020 27 901.71 50 798.71
Unemployment Rate 2021 14.82 6.71
Unemployment Rate for Tertiary Education Level 2020 11.52 4.17
Countries used

4 Conclusion

On a personal note, from my own experiences and knowledge, the opportunities, as well as the working conditions that exist in Greece are very much indicative of what one would expect from a country with these metrics.

References 📚

OECD (2022), Unemployment rate (indicator). doi: 10.1787/52570002-en (Accessed on 08 February 2022)

OECD (2022), Unemployment rate by age group (indicator). doi: 10.1787/997c8750-en (Accessed on 08 February 2022)

OECD (2022), Unemployment rates by education level (indicator). doi: 10.1787/6183d527-en (Accessed on 08 February 2022)

OECD (2022), Long-term unemployment rate (indicator). doi: 10.1787/76471ad5-en (Accessed on 08 February 2022)

OECD (2022), Youth unemployment rate (indicator). doi: 10.1787/c3634df7-en (Accessed on 08 February 2022)

OECD (2022), Employment rate (indicator). doi: 10.1787/1de68a9b-en (Accessed on 08 February 2022)

OECD (2022), Employment rate by age group (indicator). doi: 10.1787/084f32c7-en (Accessed on 08 February 2022)

OECD (2022), Employment by education level (indicator). doi: 10.1787/26f676c7-en (Accessed on 08 February 2022)

OECD (2022), Self-employment rate (indicator). doi: 10.1787/fb58715e-en (Accessed on 08 February 2022)

OECD (2022), Hours worked (indicator). doi: 10.1787/47be1c78-en (Accessed on 08 February 2022)

OECD (2022), GDP per hour worked (indicator). doi: 10.1787/1439e590-en (Accessed on 08 February 2022)

OECD (2022), Average wages (indicator). doi: 10.1787/cc3e1387-en (Accessed on 08 February 2022)

OECD (2022), Young population (indicator). doi: 10.1787/3d774f19-en (Accessed on 08 February 2022)

OECD (2022), Old-age dependency ratio (indicator). doi: 10.1787/e0255c98-en (Accessed on 08 February 2022)

OECD (2022), Fertility rates (indicator). doi: 10.1787/8272fb01-en (Accessed on 08 February 2022)

OECD (2022), Gross domestic product (GDP) (indicator). doi: 10.1787/dc2f7aec-en (Accessed on 08 February 2022)

OECD (2022), Education spending (indicator). doi: 10.1787/ca274bac-en (Accessed on 08 February 2022)

End 🏁